A criminal gang has been forcing children to skipper boats smuggling migrants from Morocco to Spain, police have revealed.
The “highly organised network” made about €2.8 million ($3.2 million) in profit from charging more than 200 people €14,000 each to make the journey.
Spain’s National Police have now arrested eight members of the criminal gang, which is made up Spanish and Moroccan citizens, after raids on properties in Algeciras and Ibiza, as well as Ceuta, an enclave of Spain in Morocco.
“The network used minors as skippers in maritime smuggling operations, often recruited and trained by the organisation itself,” said Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.
“This fact not only highlights and amplifies the risk of accidents and fatalities, but also exposes vulnerable youngsters to exploitation and coercion. This practice illustrates the ruthless and dehumanising nature of criminal networks, which prioritise profits over human life.”
Along with migrants, the gang also simultaneously trafficked large amounts of cannabis resin to Spain, using the same vessels. On the way back to Morocco, the gang smuggled the drug Clonazepam to maximise their profits. Police found 10,800 tablets of the medication that is also taken by recreational drug users for its hallucinogenic effect.
Authorities also seized 22kg of cannabis, €50,000 in cash, five vehicles, two boats, weapons, electronic devices and navigation equipment.
Europol say the Spanish branch of the network operated from Ceuta and Algeciras, while the head of the Moroccan branch lived in Ibiza. They used a three-tiered structure comprising of leadership and co-ordination, maritime execution, and ground-level logistics.
Smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean is a lucrative business for criminals and last year Spanish police smashed a trafficking ring that took about 1,000 people from Syria and Algeria into Europe by boat.
Migrants from Syria were illegally transported through Lebanon and North Africa to the coast of Algeria for about €20,000 a person, it is alleged. From Algeria, they were sent across the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats and taken to unsanitary safe houses in Spain, police said.
A total of 21 people were arrested in police raids in which four hotels were searched, three vehicles impounded and thousands of euros, US dollars and Algerian dinars seized.
Other criminals also opened up a new route to take migrants from Morocco and Algeria into EU in which they first flew to the UK on tourist visas and were then smuggled in lorries to France.
In total, 12 members of the Algerian-led gang have now been convicted for their part in the operation, in which each migrant was charged up to £1,200 ($1,600) for the trip.
Video taken by a migrant from inside a lorry shows it filled with 39 Algerian and Moroccans, including a six-year-old boy. Those inside can be heard banging on the sides of the trailer, screaming and crying for assistance, with of shouting "open the door, open the door".
